Uttarakhand Winter Roadtrip — Drive from Haldwani to Kausani

Going past Kathgodam, Bhimtal, Almora, Kausani is a little less than 150kms from Haldwani, and is a total of about 4 and a half hours’ drive. Owing to the long drive the previous evening, Delhi to Haldwani, and the chill of the December morning, we could manage to start from Haldwani only around 10am. Quite late that was, because, we reached Kausani only around 3.30 pm, after having stopped multiple times only the way to loiter along riversides…to drink chai…to click photos…

The roads are in fairly good state, barring a few patches, where repairs and/or expansions are on. The hills start from Haldwani, hence, be prepared for the continuous hairpin turns. Along the way, we drove past beautiful villages, and by the Kosi river. Its crystal clear flow and the rocky riverbed charms you so much that you fight a desire to stop by every 5 minutes. We too stopped by, a couple of times, thereby delaying our arrival at Kausani. No regrets of course….after all, what is this life, if full of care, we do not have the time to stand and stare?

Dhabas are aplenty along the way….so do not worry about your chai cravings. Don’t crave for coffee though! You are in the wrong hills for that! And we suggest, you carry your own snacks – for, those that you get in the dhabas are mostly the deep-fried veggie fritters, not good for your stomach in these hill roads, if you know what I mean.

The scenery, along the way, warms your heart, barring the drive through Almora town. They have ruined the hills there…..it pains to see how they have concretised the hills. Terrible. A complete eye-sore. When will our governments wake up to the nuisance that they plan in the garb of ‘progress’. Chopping off trees, rendering hills bare, and making multi-storied buildings is such a bad way to progress!

Thankfully, post Almora, beauty is restored….we drove past idyllic hill farms and countrysides to reach Kausani just when the clouds decided to come down and hide the Himalayas. In fact, it started drizzling soon after….

We checked into Ashritha (Read: Review of Ashritha in Kausani), shivering, and pulling our mufflers and jackets from the bags….Lunch was waiting…steaming hot, we thought these had to be manna, straight from the heavens via the clouds….

(P.S: We have chronicled the summer road-trip in Uttarakhand in a separate series. Should you want to plan a similar trip, here’s help with itinerary, stay suggestions, shopping tips and food tips! Read — An Uttarakhand Road-trip This Summer)

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Agree with the way, our precious non-renewable resource, our natural heritage and Beauty, has been destroyed over the years. People come here for the beautiful hills and quanta villages. If these are gone, people will just go to some other country.

Truly! Complete apathy, and short-sightedness. The local governments should completely move towards sustainable tourism…empower the locals to set up B&B, instead of allowing big hotels mar the hills by their concrete buildings.